Understanding Health Behaviour
Full course description
In this module we will discuss important determinants that influence the adoption of healthy and unhealthy behaviours. We will have a look at important individual-level determinants as well as environmental-level determinants and discuss theories concerning these determinants to better understand health behaviour. In a separate training we will focus on skills to apply these theories in practice. Students will learn how to develop questions to assess determinants of health behaviour, how to analyse qualitative data and to report these findings. The module will be assessed with an individual written exam and a group paper.
Course objectives
The general aim of this module is to analyse and critically discuss the determinants of health behaviour derived from theories that are commonly used to explain health behaviour. This is essential not only for understanding motives why people adopt certain health behaviours, but also to understand which specific steps are required in order to be able to move to the next step: programme development in order to motivate people and actors in their environment to change the conditions favouring a more healthy lifestyle and healthier conditions.